Steam purification

Steam Purity. The trend toward higher pressures and temperatures in steam power plant practice imposes a severe demand on steam-purification equipment for elimination of troublesome solids in the steam. Carryover may result from ineffective mechanical separation and from the vaporization of boiler-water salts. Total cany-over is the sum of the mechanical and vaporous carry-over of all impurities. 

Steam Purification. The steam that leaves the neutralizer can be purified, or it can be condensed and then purified. Some steam purification techniques are described in Reference 103. The steam may be used in the evaporator be used to preheat and evaporate ammonia, or be used to preheat the nitric acid.103... 

Students should carry out the purification by steam distillation of (a) crude nitrobenzene or chlorobenzene, or of (b) crude naphthalene, o-nitrophenol (p. 170) or />-tolunitrile (p. 194) as examples of solid compounds which may also be purified in this way. When the distillation is complete, disconnect the tubing (Fig. 15) between C and D before removing the flame from under D, otherwise the contents of C will be sucked back into D as the latter cools. 

Steam Distillation. Distillation of a Pair of Immiscible Liquids. Steam distillation is a method for the isolation and purification of substances. It is applicable to liquids which are usually regarded as completely immiscible or to liquids which are miscible to only a very limited extent. In the following discussion it will be assumed that the liquids are completely immiscible. The saturated vapours of such completely immiscible liquids follow Dalton s law of partial pressures (1801), which may be stated when two or more gases or vapoms which do not react chemically with one another are mixed at constant temperature each gas exerts the same pressure as if it alone were present and that... 

Castor oil may be obtained by cold expression of the decorticated seed. The oil is steamed under vacuum to eliminate odors and coagulate the toxic albumin. Fuller s earth or activated charcoal may be used for further purification. 

Dilute glycerol Hquors, after purification, are concentrated to cmde glycerol by evaporation. This process is carried out in conventional evaporation (qv) under vacuum heated by low pressure steam. In the case of soap—lye glycerol, means are suppHed for recovery of the salt that forms as the spent lye is concentrated. Multiple effort evaporators are typically used to conserve energy while concentrating to a glycerol content of 85—90%. 

Taking into account the purification losses, the following operating requirements are necessary in order to obtain 100 kg of purified acetylene 200 kg hydrocarbons (feedstock plus quench), 1030 kWh electric energy for the arc, 250 kWh electric energy for the separation unit, and 150 kg steam. 

Steam-Reforming Natural Gas. Natural gas is the single most common raw material for the manufacture of ammonia. A typical flow sheet for a high capacity single-train ammonia plant is iadicated ia Figure 12. The important process steps are feedstock purification, primary and secondary reforming, shift conversion, carbon dioxide removal, synthesis gas purification, ammonia synthesis, and recovery. 

Water Treatment. Water and steam chemistry must be rigorously controlled to prevent deposition of impurities and corrosion of the steam cycle. Deposition on boiler tubing walls reduces heat transfer and can lead to overheating, creep, and eventual failure. Additionally, corrosion can develop under the deposits and lead to failure. If steam is used for chemical processes or as a heat-transfer medium for food and pharmaceutical preparation there are limitations on the additives that may be used. Steam purity requirements set the allowable impurity concentrations for the rest of most cycles. Once contaminants enter the steam, there is no practical way to remove them. Thus all purification must be carried out in the boiler or preboiler part of the cycle. The principal exception is in the case of nuclear steam generators, which require very pure water. These tend to provide steam that is considerably lower in most impurities than the turbine requires. A variety of water treatments are summarized in Table 5. Although the subtieties of water treatment in steam systems are beyond the scope of this article, uses of various additives maybe summarized as follows ... 

Makeup. Makeup treatment depends extensively on the source water. Some steam systems use municipal water as a source. These systems may require dechlorination followed by reverse osmosis (qv) and ion exchange. Other systems use weUwater. In hard water areas, these systems include softening before further purification. Surface waters may require removal of suspended soHds by sedimentation (qv), coagulation, flocculation, and filtration. Calcium may be reduced by precipitation softening or lime softening. Organic contaminants can be removed by absorption on activated carbon. Details of makeup water treatment may be found in many handbooks (22—24) as well as in technical Hterature from water treatment chemical suppHers. 

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